The artist Rainer Ganahl has been creatively adapting the writings of Karl Marx to his own work since the 1990s. The German philosopher’s ideas have galvanized projects such as Ganahl’s irreverent fashion show Commes des Marxists, a series of obscene food sculptures inspired by the “credit crunch” of 2008, and a Karl Marx fire extinguisher.

Performativity explores the in-between space when bodies or objects are left to perform. The fact that we are living more and more in an “immaterial” world, dominated by mediatization (which some call spectacle), the impact of globalization, the increasing tendency to think of politics as biopolitics—these different factors enhance performance over materiality, or object making.

While emphasizing the multiple correspondences between collectives and groups like Arte Povera, Archizoom, Superstudio, and figures such as Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini, this volume also highlights previously overlooked spaces, works, and performances.